The social construction of race and gender as it applies to a populations’ unwilling to identify with conventional monolithic notions of racial and gender identity is a cry to progress forward as the demographic of American is changing, but yet our cries go unheard. Well, heard but dismissed as “We the People” are undermined by the dangerous assumptions of ethnocentrism that has ingrained its’ self within every institution on Americas’ soil. This concept nullifies the core principals of our governing doctrine and holds up a mirror to Americans’ ugly inception that aid in the condemnation of her people that enrich her soil and breathes life into a system that is grotesquely skewed.
Ethnocentrism is a disposition that the rest of the worlds’ cultural traditions impact not the scheme of conceptual ethno-culture of ones’ group. It is an overgeneralization of another’ cultural; Customs, practices, and inhabitants that are judged as less significant. This is of course a failure on the part of the individual doing said judging and harms all within its’ processes. The individual is unable to see the possibilities of another way of thinking that is beyond the scope of their own microcosm. A great sociologist, William Graham Sumner was the first to put a name to this notion with emphasis on culture as the center that causes “other attitudinal indicators” of them being racism, xenophobia, prejudice that justify an authoritarian structure. “Burdens by a linear, progressive conception of history and by an assumption that Euro-American Culture flourished… progression, Westerners have told the history of…an inevitable if occasionally bittersweet triumph western ways over “primitive” ways.” (From A Native Daughter; Haunani-Kay Trask) Ethnocentrism is the spark and the “attitudinal indicators” are the kerosene that burns down the house. In other terms, ethnocentrism is subtle and may not have an extreme negative connotation just an ignorant mind frame but it is brutally virulent in its’ ability to validate sub-human theories and practices of oppression.
So why is ethnocentrism alive and well in a society that claims to be a melting pot? The biggest factor is social identity that holds up the social structure of our civilization. And those who control the social structure are, those who have structural power. True structural power can be seen as a governing power which has been held mainly by Anglo-American males, and not until recently have the “minorities” been able to invade into the governing realm. Which is understandable because of the all too well known saying that “history is written by the victor” and “to the victor goes the spoils” which then enables those in power to make the structure best fit them to keep an elite hold. This elite hold fosters ethnocentrism and causes it to evolve into more aggressive forms of oppression while the majority is becoming the numerical minority.
This system creates a clear cut divide and the perception that ethnocentrism wants to keep the status-quo in the position that aids the imposer; it does not allow the culmination of “the un-desirables” influence. It does with by the creation of the “us versus them” mentality. It keep minorities from obtain certain skills to make sure slots of power are opened for their aligned counter parts. A simple example used, that extents its reach to all, is colleges saving spots for family member of alumni and exemplifies the concept of networks which then lends its’ self to minority discrimination. This thesis maintains that it is not that they truly refuse minorities, it is that they are keep out of the loop thus, ensuring that only those apart of the network or others with their shared idea of the social structure should be gain insight to get in. “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin and sex, excluded “educational institutions in their educational